Are you a Brutalist?

Right: A wonderful Paul Evans Forge/ Sculpture Front cabinet 1973, made of brass, copper, steel, and gold leaf seen here with his Argente box table. The Exchange Int have one of the most important Paul Evans collections, especially of his studio works

But what exactly is Brutalism? The Brutalist label can be applied to the work of a number of architects working in the 1950s, 60s and 70s – such as British couple Alison and Peter Smithson, Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier, and Miles Warren from New Zealand. They all used contemporary materials and techniques to create buildings that sat comfortably with the geography.

Characteristics of Brutalist buildings were to leave the concrete un nished and use repeating patterns in a modular or grid-based way. They tend to show their construction materials rather than attempting to conceal them. The absence of decoration – some- thing that Brutalism inherited from the earlier Bauhaus School – allows Brutalist designs to focus on the building’s purpose.